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Stormin

Wheel Weights.

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  Rear wheel weights are something I've been wanting for some time. Now and then various ideas have crossed my mind, but I've never got around to actually doing anything.

  Art, (Old Tankman), put up a post on some he'd made. That was the kick I needed. The other day I acquired a pair of rear discs/drums off a Land Rover Freelander, out off the scrap bin at my local Land Rover specialists.    DSCF0001.thumb.JPG.90afa5f809deb4256ab8bbc33248c383.JPG

 

  The disc fits nicely into the outer edge of the Wheel Horse rear wheel.

 

  Today, while visiting a local engineering workshop, I left with two of these pulleys.

 

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  The pulleys also fit nicely into the inside of the wheels. 

  If you look closely, you will see two small holes in the drum. There's actually four and they are pilot holes for bolt holes to fasten disc/drum to pulley. You can see the four corresponding punch marks in the pulley. They are now drilled and ready for bolting together.

  Next I drilled four more holes in the pulleys for studs to bolt the finished weights to the wheels. These were spot drilled using a spare wheel as a jig. They were then drilled for tapping out 10mm. Here I hit a problem. I've a fair collection of taps, UNC, BSF, UNF, Metric and BSP. Believe it or not, NO 10mm taps to be found. :banghead: 

  

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Nice job Norm:thumbs:, wished I kept my old discs from the Transit:(. So you are on the lookout for some Lead for the extra weight then! :ph34r:.

Are you going to Weld the Back Nuts onto the wheels ?.    

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   Already got the lead, Richard. Came off some outbuildings a friend demolished.

 

  Did a bit of thinking today, about stopping the lead from falling out. Simple solution. Change the bolts fastening pulley to disc/drum for longer ones and fitted opposite way round. A good inch of thread was left  showing inside the drum.  

  Next job was to take weights and lead up to the farm and use the oxy/acet equipment to melt the lead. I had only enough lead to half fill each drum.  That was ample for the molten lead to flow round the threads of the bolts. So the cooled lead was now held securely in the drum.

  Back home and weighed the weights again. Now one weighs 31lb and 'tother 32lb. Not bad considering I didn't weigh the lead first.

  The lead surface was rough and needed hiding. So two 8-1/8 blank discs were cut from a couple of plastic feed tub lids brought back from the farm. In each drum two opposing bolt threads protrude from the lead. The discs were then drilled and fitted over the two protruding bolts and held in place with a couple of nuts.

  Painting is now in progress. :thumbs:

 

  BTW Richard. The weights will be secured to the wheels, with nyloc nuts on the studs.

 

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Couple of photo's of them fitted.

 

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  I did have to do a slight mod. When I fitted the studs to go through the wheels, I used a standard wheel as a jig. I've narrowed the wheels haven't I. Consequently  the studs were to long. :rolleyes: Cut 1-3/4" off them then fitted the weights using nyloc nuts.

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 Got some more lead the other week. Eldest-son-in-law said he'd got some from when he's had roof repairs done. I only wanted about 50lb but came back with 400lb. :rolleyes:

 So up to the farm today, fired up the oxy/acet and topped up the weights. Guess work how much lead to add, more by good luck than judgement, the weights have ended up the same. 56lb.

 

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  To tidy things up I found a couple of plastic bucket lids to replace the existing ones. Eight self drilling/tapping roofing screws and things looked better.

 

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  Quick spray of primer.

 

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 They'll get another coat and a couple of top coats before I refit them.

 

 

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57 minutes ago, the showman said:

They look good Norm, not sure about the plastic lids you're have to be careful loading on the trailer  and not rubbing them on the sideboards, :hide:

 

One of my thoughts as well, Chris. But I don't think they'll stick out further than the tyres. We'll see.

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